Team-oriented Calderon saves the day

We live in an era where many NBA players care more about how many points they score, or whether or not their latest basket made the Sportscentre highlight reel than they do about winning.

Jose Calderon is not one of those players.

Calderon is in a contract year. That means many teams will judge his value at least partially on his statistics. When judging Calderon, statistics don't even show half of the true story.

In a gesture unheard of in today's sports universe, Calderon approached Bryan Colangelo and Sam Mitchell in order to suggest putting T.J. Ford back into the Raptors starting lineup and returning Calderon to his role of coming off the bench.

Calderon's decision was made for one reason and that was to help the Raptors come out of their funk, which has seen them lose 11 of their last 13 games.

The losing streak has happened mostly because of two major events: T.J. Ford's return and Chris Bosh's injury.

If you've been reading my blog then you know my opinion of Ford, especially in the last couple of weeks, and it has not been good. Ford has been sulking ever since his return from injury and obviously Calderon knew that things would not change until Ford was given his starting position back.

With Ford injured for most of the year, Calderon played like an all-star and no one could have justified taking the starting spot away from him, but Calderon suggested the move himself. He wanted to see Ford play better and knew from experience that he could contribute just as much coming off the bench.

Calderon gave up his starting spot because he knew that the Raptors needed a boost if they were going to come out of their slump and have a chance at doing some damage in the postseason.

If tonight was any indication, his gesture may end up being the turning point in the 2007-08 season for Toronto.

Calderon's unselfish action not only helped Toronto beat the Pistons tonight, but may have saved the Raptors season from total disaster.

He also may have saved both Sam Mitchell and T.J. Ford's careers as Raptors.

By Calderon doing what he did, the entire team seemed to have a more confident look and T.J. Ford played team basketball for the first time since his return.

How could Ford or anyone else for that matter play any other way after the amazingly selfless gesture made by Jose?

Not only will Ford play better as a starter, but the second unit will get a much needed boost of energy and instead of losing ground when the starters take their rest, the reserves are now equally as strong with Calderon leading the way.

While Bosh can carry the starting lineup, the second unit needed a change.

With Calderon the court, Delfino, Kapono and now Bargnani, who was also moved out of the starting lineup in favour of Rasho Nesterovic, will now see open shots, rather than standing around watching Ford dribble out the shot clock.

Also, the change in the starting lineup seems to have motivated Sam Mitchell to do what he should have been doing all season, which is to play both Ford and Calderon side-by-side at the guard positions in the last seven or eight minutes of the fourth quarter. The two point guards played very well together and without both of them on the court in the final minutes, the Raptors may have blown their lead.

I'm not a fan of T.J. Ford, but when he plays smart team basketball, he's definitely one of the top three players on the Raptors along with Calderon and Bosh. With all three healthy (for now) and with Ford now playing to win, the Raptors could peak at the right time and maybe even make a playoff run.

NBA Notes

Monday night featured two great games: Phoenix at Detroit and L.A. Lakers at Golden State. These are the kind of games that make me want to do nothing but watch basketball for hours and hours at a time, but both left me with a bitter taste in my mouth. After watching Phoenix fight back to give the Pistons a game, the refs decided to give every call to Detroit. They basically decided the game, calling touch fouls and giving every close call to the Pistons. Eventually, Mike D'Antoni threw a fit and Detroit won the game, but I would have loved to see what the end result would have been if they had let Phoenix play. I think the Suns would have won the game in regulation.

After watching the early game, I didn't think anything could top it, but I was dead wrong. The Lakers - Warriors matchup may have been one of the most exciting regular season games of the year, but ended in an even more frustrating fashion.

After the Warriors made an improbable comeback and sent the game into overtime, Bob Delaney decided to call an offensive foul on Monta Ellis on the inbounds pass in what was Golden State's last attempt to tie the game and send it into double OT. The foul clearly should have either been a no call or a defensive foul on Derek Fisher. On the replay, it was clear that Fisher pulled Ellis down. Delaney had no business making the call and was at a terrible angle to judge what had happened.

Let's hope the terrible officiating ends with the regular season. There's going to be some exciting first round playoff matchups, especially in the West. I'd hate to see a Lakers-Warriors series come down to a bad call by an official.

Thursday's NCAA picks:

West Virginia -1.5 over Xavier
North Carolina -9 over Washington State
Louisville -3 over Tennessee

Check back this weekend for more basketball and a Blue Jays/baseball preview!